FEVER AND AGUE. (INTERMITTENT FEVER.)
The description of fever already given applies well to this form of it, only the symptoms in the former stage are rather more distinct than in the other varieties. Weariness, lassitude, yawning, and stretching, a bitter taste in the mouth, nausea, less of appetite, the uneasy state of the stomach and bowels are more marked in the premonitory stages of intermittent fevers. The cold stage commences with a chilliness of the extremities and back, the skin looks pale and shriveled, the blood recedes from the surface, respiration is hurried, the urine is limpid and pale, sometimes there is nausea and vomiting, and towards the conclusion of the stage, the chilly sensations are varied with flushes of heat. The hot stage is distinguished by the heat and dryness of the surface of the body and the redness of the face; there is great thirst, strong, full, and hard pulse, free and hurried respiration and increased pain in the head and back. The sweating stage commences by perspiration appearing upon the forehead, which slowly extends over the whole body, and soon there is an evident intermission of all the symptoms. In the inflammatory variety of intermittent fever, all these symptoms are acute, short, and characterized by strong reaction. Gastric fever, the most frequent variety of intermittent fever, is marked by irritation of the stomach and bowels, and a yellow appearance of the white of the eye.
Causes. The cause of the malarial fevers, intermittent, remittent, and congestive, is supposed to be miasm, a poisonous, gaseous exhalation from decaying vegetation, which is generally most abundant in swamps and marshes, and which is absorbed into the system through the lungs.
Treatment. During the entire paroxysm the patient should be kept in bed, and in the cold stage, covered with blankets and surrounded with bottles of hot water. The Compound Extract of Smart-weed should be administered in some diaphoretic herb-tea. During the hot stage, the extra clothing and the bottles of hot water should be gradually removed and cold drinks taken instead of warm. During the sweating stage the patient should be left alone, but as soon as the perspiration ceases, from two to four of the Purgative Pellets should be administered, as a gentle cathartic. A second paroxysm should, if possible, be prevented. To accomplish this, during the intermission of symptoms, the Golden Medical Discovery should be taken in doses of from two to three teaspoonfuls every four hours in alternation with three-grain doses of the sulphate of quinine. If the attack is very severe, and is not relieved by this treatment, a physician should be summoned to attend the case.